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Manual of Style
The Manual of Style is designed to be a rough guide to how to write articles for the Midsomer Murders Wiki. If you're new to Wikia editing in general, you might want to look at this page first for a beginner's guide. This Manual of Style is mostly intended for the two most important types of articles on the Midsomer Murders Wiki: *Character Articles, and *Episode Articles. The Midsomer Murders Wiki will be most efficient if it is consistent and uniform. Wikipedia has its own Manual of Style here, but there are some important differences between formatting styles here and there. Note that this is not a complete list, and suggestions are welcome. Article names When creating a new page, the following page naming conventions should be observed. Character Articles Character articles will be titled with the person's name as follows: *If both first and last names are known, characters' first names and surnames should be included in the title (no middle names). Exceptions are if the character is credited on-screen using a shortened form of their first name or a nickname. Likewise, articles on actors or production crew, or any individual, are listed under the name for which they receive on-screen credit. *For characters who changed their surnames through marriage, their most recent known surname takes precedence. Redirect pages can be created for previous surnames. *Both first name and surname should be capitalised. *If characters are only given one name, such as a first name, the article title should be given a qualifier to differentiate it from articles on people with the same name. *Do not use titles (eg. Mr, Mrs, Dr). Episode Articles The article name will be the title of the episode as it appears on the ITV web site. Perspective There are two ways to write a content page: in-universe and out-of-universe. The difference between these depends on the subject of the article; if it exists in the fictional world depicted in Midsomer Murders then it should be in-universe, otherwise it is out-of-universe. In-universe When writing an in-universe article the subject material should be treated as real (even though it obviously isn't). For example, the Cully Dixon article begins Cully Dixon (née Barnaby) is the daughter of Tom and Joyce Barnaby. She is married to Simon Dixon., not Cully Dixon is a fictional character from the British show Midsomer Murders, played by Laura Howard. Although these articles will contain some behind-the-scenes information, this should be under a heading such as 'behind the scenes' or another if there are a lot of supplementary out-of-universe details, and such a section should be written out-of-universe. Pages written in-universe include those on the characters, places and businesses seen in the show and the plot sections of episode articles. Out-of-universe This is when an article is written from a real-world perspective, and acknowledges that the show is fictional. When writing an article from this perspective, editors should use the Real World template to mark the page as out-of-universe. Pages written this way include those on production staff and overall articles on Midsomer Murders and the making of it. Article Content All articles should belong to at least one category and all articles should have content. The other sections are not necessary, but if they are included, they should be in the order indicated. Distinct content and behind the scenes sections should only be included in articles written in-universe, otherwise they are the same thing. The content section should not use a Content heading. Longer articles should have several headings and subheadings in the content section to make for better reading, but smaller articles should not have any heading for the content. For more information on how specific types of pages should be laid out, see the following: *Layout Guide - Episode *Layout Guide - Character Images Images can be either publicity pictures or screenshots with the sole exception of episode pages where they must only be screenshots or portions of screenshots. Images must be of good quality, contrast, brightness and resolution. If the administrators deem that the image is not acceptable, it will be deleted, or in some cases, marked for deletion so that the original author can upload a more acceptable image. Image Type It is a Wikia recommendation that .jpg files be used for photographic images and .png files be used for simpler images such as cartoon screenshots. Attribution When images are uploaded, an attribution must be specified. This can easily be done by clicking on "More Options" within the upload window and selecting one of the options. Character Images *Character images should be 400px wide. *The image should be of the head and shoulders only. Episode Images *Episode images should be 800px wide. Additional Information Additional information and recommendations about images can be found at Wikia Help:Uploading_files Grammar and spelling It is felt that although Wikipedia conforms to American English, Midsomer Murders Wiki editors should be written in English English, mainly because the show is made and first broadcast in the United Kingdom where that variety of English is the most common, and is used by the characters in the show (usually). Sometimes speakers of other varieties of English may edit pages other than in English English, and for uniformity it is preferred if these pages are edited to conform to the standard of this wikia. Dates *Calendar dates should be written as "12th February 2006" or when brevity is required such as in tables, "12 Feb 2006". This is the most common way of dating in the UK. Tense As a rule of thumb, in-universe articles should be written in past tense, because from an outside perspective, all events depicted in Midsomer Murders episodes are history once the episode is broadcast. Out-of-universe articles should also follow this rule. Other *Links to other episodes within pages should be in italics or inside inverted commas i.e.: ( Bantling Boy). *Be aware that articles which exist on Wikipedia will not necessarily be created on this Wikia, even if they are mentioned in an article here. An article should only be created on Midsomer Murders Wiki if the topic is relevant to Midsomer Murders. If it is deemed useful to give a reader access to more information on something, it is preferable to link directly to the article on Wikipedia. Headings Headings should be used within longer articles to make for easier reading. Main headings should be bracketed by double equal signs. Subheadings should be bracketed by triple equal signs. *Similar to the naming conventions of article pages, headings should only have the first word and proper nouns capitalised. *Avoid links in headings. *Do not include special formatting in headings (underlines, italics, etc.) *Beware of too many headings for too little information. It is messy and makes the article look like a stub. Categories Every Article or Page must be a member of at least one Category. If in doubt of which category to use, examine similar page(s) to see the categories that have been used. See Also * Layout Guide - Episode * Layout Guide - Character